Online gaming is gaining popularity, but regulations of online gaming present numerous challenges to online gaming service providers. For example, currently, a user is not allowed to participate in online gaming unless the user is within the borders of a state that has legalized such gaming. As such, online gaming providers must use geo-location technology to determine the user's location. Geo-location technologies help online service providers with geo-fencing, that is, placing an invisible fence around the borders of a location (e.g., a state, a building or other property, etc.), outside of which services are unavailable to users. However, because different service providers use different technologies to determine users' locations, the user experience may differ amongst different service providers.
It is believed that as many as forty percent of potential users within legal gaming jurisdictions are either not able to verify location compliance or are inadvertently kicked off a site mid-game due to discrepancies with geo-locating services. With traditional cell ID and GPS, geo-locating services, there is no reliable way to guarantee that the identity of a user is less than five miles of a geo-fencing border. With such poor accuracy, service providers typically opt to disallow a user to participate, even though that user may be within a legal gaming border, rather than accept the risk that the user may not be within the legal border. Currently, the standard is to disallow players within five miles of a state border, to account for worst-case cellular location error limitations. An example of an existing gaming network is described in U.S. Ser. No. 12/618,529 entitled “Gaming Control System”, filed on Nov. 13, 2009 by Gregory T. Dewitt.
Furthermore, consumers rely on their mobile devices to provide relevant content and communication with service providers now more than ever before. Consumers are beginning to expect service providers to anticipate and meet their needs based on their individual situations in real-time. This expectation must be balanced against users' general reluctance to supply service providers with sensitive personal information. Moreover, service providers in all fields desire to provide users with a better user experience, cost-effectively advertise and deliver services to users more efficiently, maximize profits, and increase the goodwill associated with their brands. However, existing mobile technologies are not being leveraged effectively to provide enhanced consumer experiences while improving service providers' access to and engagement with relevant consumers.
Additionally, the use of digital signage in advertisements by retailers and other service providers is growing rapidly on a global scale. Moreover, local radio frequency beaconing technology is being adopted to allow interaction between mobile devices and digitally published content over signage monitors. However, the technology still caters primarily to users who are physically present at or near a service provider's location or venue (e.g., traditional “foot traffic”) and those with beaconing applications running at point-of-touch with the monitor. There is a need to extend the value proposition of the traditional digital signage model to include mobile users through cloud and sensor/actuator nodes.
The present invention is aimed at one or more of the problems identified above.